


Alive. Fighting. Coming Home.

by randompandemic



Series: Fenris & Ariadne [1]
Category: Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-06
Updated: 2015-07-06
Packaged: 2018-04-08 01:31:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4285551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randompandemic/pseuds/randompandemic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While he learns to read, Ariadne Hawke makes it a habit to leave Fenris little messages. The last little message he finds changes everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alive. Fighting. Coming Home.

Fenris starts finding them everywhere. 

Small slips of paper, words written on them with nice ink and very clean, very readable handwriting. 

When he started learning, he had been defensive, did not want to accept her help, felt ashamed for lacking a skill that seemed so natural to her and their friends. He had felt ashamed that he knew not how to put a single, proper word to paper, while Varric produced books like clockwork. He felt ashamed that he could not decipher road signs out on their travels. He felt ashamed, and he did not want her to know. She respected it, and she left him alone and after he had snapped at her for offering to teach him once, she had never brought it up again, never mentioned it when she saw him hunched over a book in secret. 

At first when he finds them, he thinks nothing of them. Thinks they are meaningless things, not meant for him, so he ignores them. But as he improves, as he learns what letter means what, and how words are formed, he realises what they are. And that they are very much meant for him. 

Some of them are just simple little messages, little reminders to stay healthy and stay well. 

_‘Don’t squint your eyes like that’_ one says, and it makes him smile. Because he has certainly been squinting his eyes. 

_‘A treat for you, in the kitchen’_ says another, and when he investigates, curious, he finds there is indeed a plate with chocolate cookies waiting there and a small note next to them ( _‘for Fenris’_ ). 

_‘Get a bit of air’_ another again, and it reminds him to stretch his aching back and open a window to let some air in.

At times, they were silly, sweet nothings. 

_‘You have the cutest smile’_ and a drawn little heart, which made him hide a chuckle behind a cough. 

_‘I like your butt’_ or _‘I want to kiss your ears’_ were also common messages. 

Others are much more intimate. 

_‘I have a kiss for you’_ one says, and the next time he sees her, she puts her hands on his shoulders and gently presses her lips to his cheek, with no force, just a light, sweet touch. 

_‘Wish I could run my fingers through your hair right now’_ another says and he smiles, goes to find her deep in her own studies and this time he is the one who wraps his arms around her and kisses her hair, making her smile.

And at times, they are downright dirty messages he quickly hides once he deciphered them, blushing violently and worrying about anyone else finding them.

_‘I am so wet for you’_

_‘Make me scream your name’_

_‘Quickie?’_

_‘You should be in bed with me right now’_

And when he does put the book away and goes upstairs, he finds her waiting on the bed, naked and in silk sheets, her hair down and blue eyes bright and warm. He smiles and sits down on the bed, lets her pull him towards her gently, lips peppering his skin with gentle kisses as she takes his mind off worries and replaces them with thoughts of her freckled shoulders, her pink lips, her hair tickling his skin, the way she moans his name, the way she holds him, the way they entwine, move together, blissfully. When they fall asleep, she is curled up next to him, an arm splayed over his chest and her face nuzzled against his neck. These are beautiful moments.

When he gets back to his studies the next morning, the first message he finds where he stopped yesterday is a _‘Good morning, handsome’_ and sometime later a _‘You make me happy’_ or a _‘I am so glad you are in my life’_. He knows she got up some time during the night to put them there.

They never speak about them, these messages she leaves for him to find, to encourage him to learn to read, to brighten his day. But he knows that he is loved, and that she is not ashamed, but proud of him, and that is what he needs. 

So when he opens the letter Varric sends him, and he curses the day he learned to read, he almost misses the small paper slip that falls out. He finds it on the floor later, when his pain is numbed by wine. Written hasty, with a shaking hand. But it is the only thing he holds onto, now that he sets out to find her. 

These few words she has written and somehow managed to slip through a rift to him.

_‘Alive. Fighting. Coming home. Love, Ari’_


End file.
